Effect of root bark extract of Berberis vulgaris L. on Leishmania major on BALB/c mice

Leishmaniasis is one of the most important diseases transmitted by arthropod. This disease is present in 88 countries. Approximately 400 million people are at risk, and 12 million are involved. We aimed to examine the application of ethanolic extract of the root bark of Berberis vulgaris L. for treatment of mice infected with cutaneous leishmaniasis. At first, 40 BALB/c mice were infected to Leishmania major promastigotes and were divided in two groups A and B. Then, each of A and B groups were divided to two subgroups. Mice from subgroup A1 were treated with 10 % root bark alcoholic extract, and mice from subgroup A2 were treated with only alcohol (control). Mice from subgroup B1 were treated with 20 % root bark alcoholic extract, and mice from subgroup B2 were treated with only alcohol (control). The 90 % recovery was found in the mice treated with 20 % root bark extract, and 55 % recovery was found with 10 % root bark extract, but in the control group, 0 % recovery was found. The results of our study showed that the lotion of root bark extract has good suppression effects on parasites. Therefore, it might be a pro for developing new antileishmanial drugs.